The Complete Thor

I've decided I'm going to do something crazy. I'm going to read every Thor story from 1962's Thor the Mighty and "The Stone Men From Saturn" in Journey into Mystery #83 all the way to 2011's Astonishing Thor and beyond. I think I've found a pretty good chronology of all the mainstream continuity appearances, and I plan to just go to town on reading as much as I can.

I didn't really have any experience reading Thor stories except for a random crossover here and there, but the movie really piqued my interest in the character, and I spent some time at the library reading some Tales of Asgard, and I'm hooked.

Any particular exciting issues I should keep an eye out for? I'll be doing some periodic reviews on here to keep you updated on my progress.

I tried doing this. It didn't work too well. Thor is inconsistent throughout its run. It starts out sucking for a bit. It all of a sudden becomes iconic during the Kirby/Lee years. Then it goes back to sucking for the most part (not totally of course, there are always exceptional issues). You basically have to wait until Walter Simonson for it to get really good again - as good as Thor has ever been, imo. After that, the Tom DeFalco era was entertaining as a kid, but not on the same level as Simonson. After that, almost all Marvel comics went through a period of sheer unreadability (it was the late 90s after all). I didn't read the new JMS stuff.

^ I second the Kieron Gillen comment; the current God Butcher arc is absolutely bitchin'.

Tom DeFalco's Thor was a guilty pleasure way back when; pseudo-sixties superhero antics that bucked the trend of the more "mature" zeitgeist.

I also have to recommend Warren Ellis' 4-issue run from (I think) issues 496 to 499, which kind of reinvented Thor as a mythic yet vulnerable figure. Was actually a bit disappointed when the series reverted to a more generic superheroey feel.

I also have to recommend Warren Ellis' 4-issue run from (I think) issues 496 to 499, which kind of reinvented Thor as a mythic yet vulnerable figure. Was actually a bit disappointed when the series reverted to a more generic superheroey feel.

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That's an odd little run. I've wondered if Ellis was supposed to do more than those four issues and then bailed on the series when Marvel mandated an Avengers crossover and the lead-up to Heroes Reborn within six months of Ellis' first issue. (Which I think was #493.) The reason I call "Worldengine" odd is that at the end of the third part the story seems to be heading in one direction, but then Ellis wraps a lot of things up in a hamfisted manner in the fourth part, then William Messner-Loebs set up a new status quo where Thor and the Enchantress are supernatural investigators.

I also have to recommend Warren Ellis' 4-issue run from (I think) issues 496 to 499, which kind of reinvented Thor as a mythic yet vulnerable figure. Was actually a bit disappointed when the series reverted to a more generic superheroey feel.

Click to expand...

That's an odd little run. I've wondered if Ellis was supposed to do more than those four issues and then bailed on the series when Marvel mandated an Avengers crossover and the lead-up to Heroes Reborn within six months of Ellis' first issue. (Which I think was #493.) The reason I call "Worldengine" odd is that at the end of the third part the story seems to be heading in one direction, but then Ellis wraps a lot of things up in a hamfisted manner in the fourth part, then William Messner-Loebs set up a new status quo where Thor and the Enchantress are supernatural investigators.

Click to expand...

I thought it was just a standalone fill-in arc by Warren Ellis. Kinda like his brief run on Thunderbolts, but much shorter.

I have no idea how well it holds up after all these years, but it was Stan Lee's original "Infinity" saga (along with the first Kree-Skrull War) that originally hooked me on Marvel Comics.

(Not to be confused with all the stuff with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet decades later. This was a twelve-part storyline back around 1970-1971 that had Thor battling a mysterious entity known only as "Infinity." I ate it up when I was in junior high.)